I have just begun performing cable crunches a little bit differently from my previous workous. Before i would hold the ends of the rope tight and close to my face and bend down so my head would come as close into my midsection as possible. I did 10-12 reps at usually 180-210lbs, depending on how much of a stretch and overload I wanted. I am now performing the movement with the rope in front of my head, more close to my fore-head and temple area, and I'm bringing my torso down with my nose pointed forward, trying to reach as far away from my waist as I can go. As opposed to how I previously brought the weight down, where I would contract my lower back and move my head down into my waist, because the rope was closer to my neck, you could almost draw a straight line down from where I held the rope to where my nose ended up at the bottom of the movement. Now I am more concerned with extending my back and creating a flat plane of surface to bring my mid section down to the floor on. I seem to get a better burn in my abs with the new way I do cable crunches, but I have had to compensate by dropping in weight (from 180lbs to about 140-150). I am getting a great stretch and I can bend from side to side to hit my obliques and serratus. Does anyone know of any tweaking I could do to cable crunches to make them more effective?